Inside Handel Hendrix House: London’s Most Unique Museum

One of London’s quirkiest museums is the Handel Hendrix House, adjoining Georgian townhouses that two of the world’s greatest musicians, George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix, used to call home. The museum has just reopened, after a major £3 million pound renovation has given access to all of Handel’s house for the first time, with a restoration of the basement and ground floor, which until recently was a luxury goods shop. The upper floors, first opened as the museum in 2001, have also been refurbished and enhanced to really give the visitor the feeling of entering the world of musical genius.

Packed with music memorabilia, history and even recorded music from Handel and Hendrix, for music lovers, this museum is the holy grail. Live music is also an exciting part of the museum, with a guitarist often playing in the Hendrix flat and classical recitals often in Handel’s house.

George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759 and it was here that he had the most commercial success. He wrote and rehearsed his greatest works, including Messiah with its popular “Hallelujah chorus”, perhaps the most famous piece of classical music ever written. His anthem “Zadok the Priest”, also written here, has accompanied the coronation of every British monarch since George II (for whom it was written in 1727), including HM King Charles III. Simon Daniels, Director of Handel Hendrix House says “as we saw at the Coronation, Handel’s music is as fresh and powerful as the day it was written and has the ability to inspire and move us. He is London’s great composer.”

All the historic rooms in the Handel house are presented as they might have been in the 1740s, when the composer was in a new burst of creative energy and had great commercial success writing dramatic oratorios. In the actual room where Handel composed Messiah, there’s a brilliant audiovisual display about the writing of the great piece. Throughout Handel’s house are recently acquired works of art to create a collection similar to the more than 100 works of art Handel owned in Brook Street.

Visitors start their tour in the recreated basement kitchen, exactly as it was when Handel lived there, thanks to carefully detailed research and an inventory made shortly after the composer’s death. On the ground floor are the parlours in which Handel would receive his guests and aristocratic patrons and where his assistant, J.C. Smith, sold tickets and subscriptions to new works. Upstairs, you’ll find Handel’s bedroom and a salon where he gave intimate preview concerts.

In 1968, Jimi Hendrix moved into the adjoining flat at number 23. Here, in the only place he said he felt truly at home, Hendrix entertained, inspired and collaborated with other icons of British 1960s rock music. The flat was restored in 2016 and opened to the public. Hendrix lived here with his British girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and she helped to restore the flat to how it looked when they lived there. As part of the recent renovations, for the first time, visitors can walk up and down the stairs to his flat and a new exhibition features a film showing his influence on musicians and creatives, and material uncovered by Handel Hendrix House through their national “Your Experience” appeal for memories, images and stories of people’s encounters with Jimi Hendrix across the country.

Handel Hendrix House, 25 Brook Street, London Wednesday – Sunday 10.00 – 17.00. Tickets: £14.00/ £10.00 students/free under 16s.

Handeliade Festival of Handel and the 18th century: 21-24 September 2023 takes place at Handel Hendrix House and Boughton House in Northamptonshire. The festival includes a performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea by The English Concert, solo recitals by harpsichordists Julian Perkins and Steven Devine and historical talks.